Image source @ Visual China
Text | Market capitalization list, author | Zhang Aisi, editor| Zhao Yuan
In this year's WeChat open class, the video number is still the highlight.
In last year's open class, Zhang Xiaolong defined video expression as the theme of the content field in the next decade. He said that although we do not know whether words or videos represent the progress of human civilization, from the perspective of personal expression and consumption level, the times are developing in the direction of video expression.
So we see that in the past year, video numbers are accelerating their evolution.
At the end of last year, the number of online viewers of the West Side Boys' video number concert exceeded 27 million, and the highest number of online people exceeded 1.5 million, equivalent to the capacity of 15 bird's nests; more than 14 million people watched the Mayday concert online.
These few cases of screen brushing are a microcosm of the attack posture of video numbers in the past year.
Judging from the information revealed by this year's open class, in the new year, the video number will continue to maintain this posture and speed, but there are also many new changes.
01 New changes: enrich the content ecology and increase support
In the two years since the official internal test in January 2020, the main axis of the video number has been to build a frame, set the direction, and cultivate the ecology.
In the WeChat open class on January 6, the video account team revealed that the first year was to build a product framework, and the second year was to establish the direction and way of content operation.
After laying the foundations of these bottom layers, the year 2022 of the video number will be a year of seeking a wider circle.
The market capitalization list observes that in the next year, the following changes will occur in the video number:
First, based on content, it is more clear about what you want and what you don't want.
Video accounts encourage original, real-person-created content, and do not encourage videos that are handled, evil, or violate platform orientation.
The video number team said that in 2021, through traffic regulation and other means, the overall traffic of video number handling and evil videos has dropped by 80%, and the place where these traffic goes is to flow to real creators.
In addition, the video number will focus on supporting pan-knowledge, pan-life, authoritative media organizations, pan-information and other content, such as sports, music, drama, talent, in the future, with a certain depth of professional knowledge content and pyrotechnic content, are popular with video numbers.
Second, based on creators, video accounts have increased support in multiple dimensions such as function, traffic, and monetization.
The video number plan supports 10 million+ original authors and helps 1 million+ high-quality authors monetize.
On the traffic side, new authors have the opportunity to obtain 5-1 million traffic packages provided by the platform; authors who continue to publish original and high-quality content have the opportunity to join the video number key support list; original real authors, that is, video numbers encourage authors, will receive additional exclusive traffic pools;
On the monetization side, in 2022, the video number will focus on creating a mutual selection platform, and authors with more than 10,000 fans can monetize through this platform. Official data shows that since the video number mutual selection platform was launched in June last year, more than 10,000 authors have settled in, and more than 80 million traffic incentives have been issued cumulatively, helping more than 1,000 authors successfully monetize.
In addition, for individual anchors, the video number will invest 5 billion cold start traffic packages this year to build a new anchor growth channel, so that new anchors can have traffic when they start broadcasting, and the qualified condition is that it focuses on supporting anchors who start broadcasting seriously and can let users continue to watch.
Video number live broadcast also provides personal anchors with live broadcast rewards, live streaming with goods and other monetization channels, providing platform policies such as high share and low commission.
Third, based on businesses, video number live broadcasting has further increased support.
In the coming year, it will continue to waive platform technology service fees for all merchants, and at the same time, the video number live broadcast plan supports no less than 100,000 high-quality merchants through traffic incentives.
It encourages and supports businesses with private domains and private domains in the WeChat ecosystem, and every time a private domain user is guided into the live broadcast room, the platform will at least incentivize one public domain user to the business.
Fourth, based on the platform ecology, the connection between video numbers and other content components will be more in-depth.
The video number team said that in WeChat's product system, the video number should become the most atomized content component. When it becomes the most basic content component, it will produce various chemical reactions with other components in WeChat, naturally circulate in the WeChat system, and eventually become the best carrier form of content such as video and live streaming.
Overall, the new year will be the year when the video number accelerates the opening of capabilities to the outside world.
When these capabilities fall on different roles in the video number ecosystem, it will be reflected in a better content consumption experience for users, a more stable rights and interests protection for creators, and a more comprehensive business guide for merchants. In this way, the video number actually only wants to do one thing well, that is, "open the door and live a good life with friends."
The formation of these capabilities is not overnight, it is precipitated from the iteration and evolution of the video number in the past two years, in this process, the content ecology of the video number and the formation of the ecology of the goods are crucial.
02 What preparations have been made in the past?
The upcoming changes in the video number are not without a trace, and these changes are closely linked to and affected by its past layout.
The first blockbuster live broadcast case of the video number dates back to the end of 2020, when photographer Li Zhenglin opened a live broadcast of "accompanying you to see the Gemini meteor shower" on the video number, and at the end, the cumulative number of online users of this live broadcast exceeded one million.
Comparing this data with the recent West side boys and Mayday data, it is not difficult to find that the video number is accelerating the "breaking of the circle".
Tencent had to do this, facing the challenge it had encountered a decade ago: how to get a ticket for the mobile Internet era/video expression era. Caixin has previously reported that Zhang Xiaolong's internal positioning of the video number is to determine the product that Tencent will go in the next 5 to 10 years - which is enough to explain the status of the video number.
We have also seen that over the past year, the change in video numbers is obvious:
First, in terms of information presentation, the video number switched from full-screen display to single-column immersive in January.
Zhang Xiaolong mentioned a law in last year's open class: the number of content bars in a screen should be inversely proportional to the hit rate.
For why the video number should be revised to show the way, he explained, "In the first half of the video number, the content richness of the platform was not enough, and the hit rate was very low. So at that time, the half-screen information flow was appropriate, a screen display more than one piece of content, the user has a choice; by the second half of the year, the content began to be enriched, the hit rate began to increase, and the full-screen display effect on a single video will be better than the half-screen. ”
This is the evolutionary logic of typical Tencent-style products, that is, making the most appropriate choices at different stages, and then optimizing the product experience through rapid iteration.
Placed on the video number, this evolutionary logic follows the content richness, pointing to the content ecology of the video number. We will elaborate on this later.
Second, the connection ability of the video number is stronger, and it has successively opened up The WeChat Mini Program, the public account, the enterprise WeChat and The WeChat Pay.
The market capitalization list is in "Why do all platforms want to bring goods?" In the article, it was proposed that the operation mode of the WeChat ecosystem is roughly divided into three parts: content platform, communication channels and sales conversion:
Content platform - public number, video number, circle of friends;
Communication channels - personal WeChat, enterprise WeChat, WeChat community;
Sales conversion - live video number, mini program;
We see that the video number is no longer a single video streaming product attached to WeChat, it is becoming the hub connecting the entire WeChat ecology, forming a complete channel of "content + social + transaction + performance" within the WeChat ecology.
Third, the status of live video numbers has been further clarified.
The official launch of the video number live broadcast was in October 2020, which is only one year and two months ago, and we can clearly see that in the past year, the support of the video number for the live broadcast business has gradually become larger.
Tool optimization level: the editing tool "second cut", the live broadcast anchor terminal "beauty, filters, microphone, mirroring, tipping, lottery", etc., video soundtrack shooting, live screen projection, background music can be set and other functions of the launch, to solve the basic problems, these action video numbers will probably be completed in early 2021.
Live broadcast entrance level: Now users can reach the entrance of the video number live broadcast, including the discovery page level entrance, subscription number, video number home page, circle of friends advertising, public account, circle of friends, community, etc.
With the level of goods: As early as the end of 2020, the video number opened up the video number and small stores, the merchant's own mini program, making it possible for the brand to take goods in the live broadcast, and then in the middle of last year, the video number mutual selection platform was launched, supporting the direct and free cooperation between the brand and the creator.
Put these changes in the video number into its growth process to see, it is worth saying that the video number in 2021 is still in the fierce army.
03 How to make up for the shortcomings of content ecology?
Zhang Xiaolong told such a story in last year's WeChat open class: At the beginning of the early video number grayscale test, it was a simple information flow in the form of content expression, mixing the content of attention, anonymous likes from friends, and recommended by the system.
In order to make the video number run quickly, the team formed three teams to do recommendation algorithms, each team of more than a dozen engineers, hoping to use different methods to find the recommended optimal solution.
However, at that time, the road based on machine recommendation did not work, and the root cause was that the early video number lacked content richness.
"The recommendation team worked hard, but the scrolling in the first few months was particularly difficult, and it seemed to fall into a dead knot, and there was no page view when the content was not good, resulting in no one contributing content, so the recommendation system could not push out good content, and then continued to have no good content to watch," Zhang Xiaolong said at the time.
In fact, this binds the hands and feet of the video number, and if it wants to break the game, the foothold is concentrated in two points:
The first is to enrich the content pool.
In a complete creator ecosystem, content producers include ordinary users, professional users, and third-party professional content producers, which actually correspond to the three content production modes of UGC, PUGC, and PGC.
The difference between the three of them can be summed up in one sentence: the content production threshold is getting higher and higher, the content quality is getting higher and higher, and their monetization demands are getting stronger and stronger.
In the past year, individual users still accounted for the largest proportion of video content composition, but new changes are also taking place.
According to Clarian data statistics, in the current content ecology of video accounts, the number of individual user accounts accounts account for 74%, contributing 62% of the content; the enterprise blue V account accounts for 21%, contributing 31% of the content; the unauthenticated agency account accounts for 5%, contributing 7% of the content.
For comparison, in the fourth quarter of 2020, the proportion of blue V certified accounts in the video number was less than 8%.
When more and more enterprises and institutions from wait-and-see to direct admission, the attractiveness of the entire video number to content creators is constantly strengthening, which leads to the continuous enrichment of the content ecology and the improvement of quality, correspondingly, its commercial value will also be widely recognized.
The second is to let users see more high-quality content. This determines the user's retention time, and the test is the ability of the video number to distribute content.
We see that later the video number changed the recommendation strategy into a social recommendation based on real-name likes and machine recommendation, and soon ushered in a round of growth: in June 2020, the number of video number users exceeded 200 million.
But this distribution mechanism that relies more on social recommendation cannot be static, and machine recommendation still has its value - otherwise TikTok and Kuaishou would not exist or would be difficult to have such a large volume.
As Zhang Xiaolong said, machine recommendation is not useless, but it can only work in the case of rich content. He believes that the recommended ratio of future video playback should be attention: friend recommendation: machine recommendation = 1:2:10.
It's a step-by-step process. We see that a large part of the current VV of video accounts still comes from social recommendation distribution, which also shows to a certain extent that the content richness of video accounts has been greatly improved in the past year, but it is not enough.
The point that the video number is correct is that in the process of continuously improving the richness of content, it switches to a single column in the form of content display in a timely manner, and gradually transitions from social recommendation to machine recommendation in the content distribution mechanism, on the one hand, it makes reasonable use of its own advantages, on the other hand, at different stages, the efficiency of content distribution is maximized as much as possible.
In 2022, the video number will further increase the layout of the content ecology, which is a reasonable and necessary make-up action.
04 Commercialization: How can brands and platforms be a win-win situation?
When the video number completes the construction of product capabilities, establishes the direction and method of content operation, and gradually improves the content ecology, the value it can create has a greater imagination space.
For example, the support for merchants is the path that the video number has vigorously explored in the past year, and it is also the key support direction in 2022.
Regarding the potential of live streaming with goods, the market capitalization list is in "Why Do All Platforms Want to Bring Goods?" Has been discussed in detail in the article, and will not be repeated here, but only three trends:
1. Brand self-broadcasting will become a more normalized means of business operation;
2. The importance of private domain operation will further climb, which will promote the growth of merchant transaction volume by increasing the repurchase rate;
3. The public domain, the private domain and the business domain are interconnected, which is the ability that the short video platform needs to build;
Based on this, the key to discussing the video number to do live streaming with goods lies in the following points:
First, is it an opportunity to belong to a few brands, or an opportunity for the majority?
For brands that choose video numbers, the private domain based on WeChat ecological precipitation is a long-term asset that they can operate sustainably, which can not only help brands complete the mission of cold start in the early stage of operation, but also produce diffusion effects and long-tail value.
Small and medium-sized businesses have the opportunity to quickly accumulate private domain users through video numbers with the help of WeChat ecology, and achieve cold start from 0 to 1. In addition, for new entrants, the video number will also give a certain amount of traffic support, which we have mentioned in the first part.
Second, how can small business become big business?
This involves two aspects. On the one hand, whether the merchant can get enough traffic, on the other hand, how this traffic reaches more users, which in turn leads to transaction conversion.
The core lies in the operation of the private domain ecology and the degree of access to public and private domain traffic.
We proposed above that after opening up the WeChat Mini Program, the public account, the enterprise WeChat and WeChat Payment, the video number has become the hub linking the entire WeChat ecosystem, forming a complete link of "content + social + transaction + performance".
For example, the connection between the video number and the enterprise WeChat and the public account can help the business more conveniently convert the target user into a member of the private domain, and at the same time have the opportunity to connect to the user's personal WeChat and circle of friends.
With the further deepening of traffic interoperability between different sub-ecosystems in the WeChat ecosystem, the live broadcast of the video number is actually the connector of the merchant in the public domain traffic and the private domain traffic, which is also another role given by WeChat to the video number in this open class.
At this time, the continuous enrichment of the entrance of the video number live broadcast can further improve the circulation efficiency of public and private domain traffic.
On this basis, we also see that its commercial closed loop has been formed within the WeChat ecosystem: video number drainage - public account, enterprise WeChat completes private domain operation - Mini Program, small store completes transactions - WeChat Pay provides payment capabilities.
To sum up, the core advantage of the video number to do live streaming with goods lies in the effective linkage of the public and private domains, based on this advantage, the platform side and the merchant side actually form a win-win situation.
Once this win-win situation is formed, it will continue to form a positive cycle within the WeChat ecosystem.
bibliography:
[1] "Tencent Holdings: Content Ecology Continues to Be Revitalized, Video Number Breaking Can Be Expected", Debon Securities;
[3] "The entry of the video number, mediocre or overtaking in the corners?" Everbright Securities;
[4] "Video number further opens up the WeChat ecology, is expected to bring 100 billion yuan of realization space", Western Securities;
[5] Is the video number more WeChat or more video? , new list;
[6] "The video number and the public account are open, I guessed it 200 days ago", flipping through the book;
[7] Why do all platforms want to bring goods? , the list of market capitalizations